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Parkfield Community School said it has no plans to change its teaching, despite protests

Protesters have claimed the lessons, part of the "No Outsiders" programme, contradict their faith.

They argued assistant head Andrew Moffat, who started the lessons and is gay, has been "promoting personal beliefs and convictions about universal acceptability of homosexuality as being normal and morally correct".

But Mrs Spielman said the lessons were "about making sure they [children] know just enough to know that some people prefer not to get married to somebody of the opposite sex and that sometimes there are families that have two mummies or two daddies".

"It's about making sure that children who do happen to realise that they themselves may not fit a conventional pattern know that they're not bad or ill."

In light of the protests, Mrs Spielman said there needed to be a "careful exploration of the middle ground" but lessons covering LGBT topics were important.